The Woman In Black (2012)
The Horror House: Eel Marsh House is a spooky house even more cut off from civilisation than most: it’s accessible only via a causeway that’s underwater for much of the day. When a young lawyer is sent to deal with the belongings of its recently deceased owner, he’s plagued by the Woman of the title and uncovers her secret.
Who Lives There: Formerly, Alice Drablow (Alisa Khazanova); now, no-one.
Scariest Room: The bedroom full of creepy toys.
How To Survive It: Never have children. The ghost is mostly concerned with kids, so staying childless should keep you relatively safe.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
The Horror House: Out in the middle of nowhere, without so much as an overpriced cornershop for miles around, this grimy little house isn’t convenient for much – even the slaughterhouse seems to have fallen into disrepair. Which makes life difficult both for the people who live there, and for anyone unfortunate enough to have car trouble nearby.
Who Lives There: Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen) and the rest of the cannibalistic Sawyer family.
Scariest Room: The fact that most of the furniture is made from human remains ensures the whole place is pretty horrifying.
How To Survive It: Make sure your car’s got plenty of fuel before heading out on road trips to isolated parts of the country and you should never have to end up here. If you do, though – run.
House Of 1000 Corpses (2003)
The Horror House: The Firefly house has a lot in common with the Sawyer house in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It’s kind of dirty, rundown, and gross, and any unfortunate travellers invited to spend the night probably won’t live to regret it.
Who Lives There: The entire Firefly clan: Baby (Sheri Moon Zombie), Mother (Karen Black), Tiny (Matthew McGrory), Otis (Bill Moseley), and Grampa Hugo (Dennis Fimple). Plus a few assorted hangers-on.
Scariest Room: Probably Dr Satan’s underground lair.
How To Survive It: Run like hell.
The Blair Witch Project (1999)
The Horror House: Deep in the woods outside Burkittsville, Maryland, there’s a creepy stone house where several children were murdered – in pairs, with one made to face the wall while the other was killed. Although the killer was caught, someone or something still lurks in that house.
Who Lives There: Murderer Rustin Parr; originally, maybe Elly Kedward, a supposed witch.
Scariest Room: The basement, where the kids were killed.
How To Survive It: Put down the camera and run for your life.
The Amityville Horror (1979)
The Horror House: 112 Ocean Avenue, Amityville, should’ve been an ideal home for a big family without much money. It’s huge, with a boathouse in the back garden, and it’s cheap as chips. The catch? Well, obviously it’s incredibly haunted. And full of flies to boot.
Who Lives There: In the film, the Lutz family; previously, the De Feos; before that, alleged devil worshippers.
Scariest Room: Either the bedroom haunted by a flying pig with glowing red eyes, or the basement, with its noisy furnace and boarded-up hidden rooms. If a dog either won’t go near the place, or whines and scratches at the walls, there’s probably something nasty going on in there.
How To Survive It: Move out. As soon as possible.
Burnt Offerings (1976)
The Horror House: Another one of those massive, crumbling fixer-uppers that’s apparently irresistible to most young families, the house here is a Victorian mansion out in the California countryside. What’s particularly strange about this one, though, is that it seems to be repairing itself, even as the new inhabitants fall victim to some odd accidents.
Who Lives There: The Rolf family: Marian (Karen Black), Ben (Oliver Reed), their son David (Lee Montgomery) and their aunt Elizabeth (Bette Davis).
Scariest Room: The private upstairs room supposedly occupied by the owners’ elderly mother.
How To Survive It: Yeah, this is another one where you should just leave as soon as scary things start happening.
Sinister (2012)
The Horror House: Although his new home looks like a completely ordinary suburban home, crime writer Ellison Oswalt (Ethan Hawke) knows its secret: the previous family who lived there were all murdered, horribly and mysteriously. The box of horrible Super 8 films in the attic can explain everything, though.
Who Lives There: The Oswalt family.
Scariest Room: The attic. As if the resident snake and scorpion weren’t scary enough, it’s also home to a wrongfaced demon and his troupe of ghostly children.
How To Survive It: Most horror houses can be survived by packing your bags and getting out, but in this case, anyone daft enough to move into a murder house will need to stay put, because it’s moving out again that triggers the real attack.
The Conjuring (2013)
The Horror House: The house in question is a farmhouse on a sprawling bit of land in Harrisville, Rhode Island. It’s another one of those huge, slightly dilapidated houses that’s suspiciously cheap, and yet again it turns out there’s a supernatural reason for the low price. At this point, it’s starting to seem like any house on the market for less than the average price is a guaranteed ghost-magnet.
Who Lives There: Currently, Roger (Ron Livingston) and Carolyn Perron (Lili Taylor), and their five daughters. Originally, it was the home of a child-murdering witch.
Scariest Room: The cellar, where the hideous ghost of a murdered former inhabitant lurks.
How To Survive It: Call an exorcist. Or, ideally, two.
A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984)
The Horror House: Any teenager who moves into 1428 Elm Street seems destined to be preyed upon by Freddy Krueger, a child murderer returned from the grave to kill teens in their sleep. All the houses on Elm Street are technically subject to his revenge, but this one seems to be a particular problem.
Who Lives There: Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp) and her parents. In later Nightmare on Elm Street films, Jesse Walsh (Mark Patton) and his family, and Lori Campbell (Monica Keena) and her family, would also move in and be terrorised by Freddy.
Scariest Room: The bedroom. Since Freddy can only get attack when his victims are asleep, this is the main place he’ll get to them.
How To Survive It: Never, ever fall asleep.
Ju-on: The Grudge (2002)
The Horror House: The Saeki house, in downtown Tokyo, was a perfectly normal home until Takeo Saeki (Takashi Matsuyama) murdered his wife and young son, creating a supernatural ‘grudge’ that claims everyone who sets foot in the house.
Who Lives There: No-one, at least not for long.
Scariest Room: The attic. It’s dark, eerie, accessible only through a hatch inside a wardrobe, and anyone who’s gone far enough into the house to find it won’t be coming out again.
How To Survive It: You can’t. Once you’ve been in the house, you’re doomed, even if you get out – the ghosts will even follow you home to scare you senseless before dragging you off to their miserable afterlife.
